Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of computer systems. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus and method for detecting, manipulating, and analyzing wireless network traffic.
Description of the Related Art
The “Internet of Things” refers to the interconnection of uniquely-identifiable embedded devices within the Internet infrastructure. Ultimately, IoT is expected to result in new, wide-ranging types of applications in which virtually any type of physical thing may provide information about itself or its surroundings and/or may be controlled remotely via client devices over the Internet.
A wireless sniffer is a device that can intercept and log traffic that passes over a wireless network. As data streams flow over the wireless network, the sniffer captures each packet. The packets may be decoded if required to capture the raw data contained therein. Wireless sniffers may be used as tools to measure network performance, capture various fields in data packets, and analyze the contents of data packets.
The wireless spectrum is full of signals from various types of different devices, including intentional and unintentional transmitters. Capturing a particular spectrum brings in all of the active signals in that spectrum, some of which are points of interest and some of which are not. Thus, the first step to start analyzing the captured signals is to filter out signals that are not targeted to reduce the computational complexity and energy. Thus, what is needed is a blind signal identification engine that requires low computational complexity and removes unwanted signals prior to analysis.